Some wireless systems include mobile stations (MS), access points (AP), and a form of control element (CE). Mobile stations communicate with access points, which in turn provide a virtual tunnel to a switching element (SE), which can also provide data transfer between access points, or from access points to external data paths. A first known problem in systems of this type is that if the data rate between mobile stations and access points is too high, the control element might not have sufficient capability to exchange data with external data paths at data rates being demanded by the aggregate of the mobile stations. A second known problem is that if the number of mobile stations is too high, individual control elements might become overloaded with the number of mobile stations they must manage.
One known solution is to simply provide more control elements, with the effect that each control element has less demand placed upon it, and with the effect that each control element need not have the full capability to exchange data with external data paths, as noted above. This known solution has the effect that the ratio of access points to control elements is reduced proportionate to the bandwidth ratio; i.e., increased bandwidth between the mobile stations and the access points means that there is a lower ratio of access points to control elements, with the effect that coordination among access points becomes more difficult as each control elements manages fewer access points. This also has the effect that it becomes difficult to perform security functions with uniform rules, as the increased number of control elements coordinate with each other. This also has the effect that it becomes difficult for mobile stations to roam between control elements, particularly when those control elements are allocated to separate Internet protocol subnets; i.e., the reduced ratio of access points to control elements reduces the ability of mobile stations to roam between certain distinct sets of access points.